Mother killed her 4 daughters, police
believe

SARAH KARUSH

Associated Press

January 10, 2008 at
7:18 PM EST

WASHINGTON
— A mother found in her home with the decomposing bodies of four
girls was charged Thursday with murder after reportedly telling
investigators that the children were possessed by demons and
died in their sleep.

Banita Jacks, 33, was charged with
felony murder and appeared in District of Columbia Superior
Court. She told police that the deaths occurred before a utility
turned off her electricity, which prosecutors said was in
September 2007, according to charging documents.

The bodies of the girls — ages 5 to 17
and believed to all be Ms. Jacks' daughters — were found
Wednesday when deputy U.S. marshals served an eviction notice at
the apartment in southeast Washington.

“I don't think anyone in the city can
remember a case involving this many young people who have died
in such a tragic way,” Mayor Adrian Fenty said.

Ms. Jacks told investigators that the
children were possessed by demons and began dying in their
sleep, one by one, within a seven-day period, documents say.

She could receive a maximum sentence of
life in prison if convicted.

Ms. Jacks appeared in court in a white
jump suit, and court was recessed briefly before a judge could
rule on her detention. Her lawyer argued that she should be
released to the custody of an adult relative pending trial.
Prosecutors argued that she should be held without bond.

Although autopsies are incomplete, the
medical examiner's office reported that there was evidence that
Brittany had been stabbed, the charging documents state. There
was evidence of binding on the necks of the Tatiana and N'kia,
and evidence of blunt force injury to the head of Aja and
binding on her neck, according to the documents.

Court records in Charles County, Md.,
show that Ms. Jacks filed paternity suits against three men, two
of which were successful. In one case, Norman Penn Jr., whose
most recent address is in Glen Burnie, is named the father of
Brittany. In another case, Kevin Stoddard, whose most recent
address is listed in Prince George's County, acknowledged he is
the father of Tatiana.

The county court records indicated that
both men failed to pay required child support. Mr. Penn was
convicted of criminal contempt and received a suspended jail
sentence. Records also show that in 2004, lenders foreclosed on
a Waldorf townhome that Ms. Jacks had purchased three years
earlier.

The home where the bodies were found is
in one of the city's poorest, most violent neighbourhoods. The
block is lined by virtually identical apartment houses near
Bolling Air Force Base. About one-third of the city's homicides
last year occurred in the area, according to preliminary police
statistics.

City officials were scrambling to
understand how four children could have been dead for at least
two weeks without anyone knowing.

The mayor said Thursday that officials
were working to determine what other contacts city agencies had
with the family.

“We are going to investigate every
single contact that this family has had with the government,
with people who are paid to look out for the welfare of
children, and we will come back with a full report,” Mr. Fenty
said.

Nona Richardson, a spokeswoman for the
D.C. Public Charter School Board, said Ms. Jacks' three younger
daughters attended the Meridian Public Charter School in
Washington consistently until March 2007.

When they stopped showing up, Ms.
Richardson said the school immediately tried to contact the
mother by mail and telephone. Officials finally went to the
woman's home and the woman told a school official that she
wanted to withdraw the children and home-school them. They were
officially withdrawn in mid-March 2007.

Ottawa Mens Centre.com, from Ottawa, Canada
wrote: Mentally Illness is a 'taboo' word
in Ontario Family Court. Any intelligent mentally
ill woman suffering hallucinations such as voices
talking to her telling her to get out of an aircraft
in flight can simply go to the nearest 'one stop
divorce shop' aka Canadian Man Hater's Association
and get 'help', not for the mental illness but to
ensure that the child never gets to see the father.
It's really simply, she simply says 'he is mentally
ill', 'he needs a parenting course' 'he needs a
mental health assessment. Ontario family courts are
a cess pool of hatred towards men. Our judges treat
any allegation of a mentally ill women as a false
complaint, how dare a man suggest that a woman is
mentally ill, that’s generally good enough reason to
make sure he never sees his child again. Take
Justice Denis Power of Ottawa, he did not like
reading such an allegation and, issued a restraining
order to banish the father from Kingston Ontario,
for ever, simply to make sure he could not even
litigate the issue. Justice Denis Power then issued
an order for costs, a draconian order that he knew
could not be met knowing full well that his order
would mean that the child would never see the father
again. Justice Denis Power also employs a orders
that do 'indirectly' what is prohibited 'directly'.
Just how the hell did such a person ever get to be
appointed to the bench and just why is it that his
activities do not clang warning bells with his
superiors. Probably because they are just as corrupt
and possessed with an equal pathological hatred that
is applied against the male gender in a form of
apartheid. It's sickening, its not just the
promotion of hatred, its the legal enforcement of
hatred towards fathers, is also called a flagrant
abuse of judicial authority. Absolute power corrupts
absolutely and Justice Denis Power is just one
example of how judgitis and power ferments itself
and oozes out of the court room walls in the form of
hatred. www.OttawaMensCentre.com